What actually changed for a Minnesota board

Associations that installed shared chargers have generally faced a choice among three unattractive billing models, and § 216B.422 improves one of them.

Absorb the cost into common expenses. Simple, and unfair — every owner subsidises the drivers. It also scales badly: an amenity used by three owners in 2023 may be used by thirty in 2028.

Use a third-party network. The network operator sells the electricity and remits a share. Workable, and it costs a per-session or subscription margin, plus hardware locked to a vendor.

Bill owners directly per kWh or per session. Cleanest economically, and the model that carried the resale question. That question is now answered.

The practical upshot is that a Minnesota association can meter its own chargers and bill actual usage to the owners who use them, without the certificate problem hanging over the arrangement.

Three things to get right in the charging policy

The rate has to have a basis. Section 216B.422 removes a prohibition; it does not authorise an association to set any price it likes. An association is still bound by its declaration and by the general requirement in Minn. Stat. § 515B.3-115 that assessments and charges have a proper footing. A rate tied to the association's actual delivered cost per kWh plus a stated, documented allowance for hardware, maintenance and reserves is defensible. A rate set to generate surplus revenue from a subset of owners is a different proposition, and it invites the argument that the charge is not authorised by the governing documents — which from 1 January 2027 also engages Chapter 82's new retaliation definition, covering any “charge… not authorized under the declaration, bylaws, or rules or regulations.”

The policy is a rule, and rules now have a process. From 1 January 2027, adopting, amending or revoking a rule requires 21 days' notice to owners for review and comment, and the rule must be reasonable. An association writing a charging policy should either finish it in 2026 or budget for the comment period.

Installation above $50,000 triggers competitive bidding. Chapter 82 requires a minimum of three written competitive bids before entering any contract for property maintenance, construction, repair or reconstruction services with an estimated cost exceeding $50,000, with affiliated bids disclosed in the minutes and the selection record kept for six years. A multi-port installation across a Minnesota parking structure clears that threshold comfortably.

Where an owner-installed charger sits

Because Minnesota has no right-to-charge law, an owner request to install at their own space runs through the association's ordinary alteration process — and that process changed in 2026.

Section 6 of Chapter 82 requires an association with approval authority to establish, by rule, “a fair, reasonable, and expeditious procedure” for deciding alteration requests, to give that procedure to the owner who asks, and to decide within 90 days of a complete application. The decision must be in writing, made under the director standard of care, and reasonable.

So while a Minnesota association may still say no to an owner-installed charger where its documents permit, from January it must say no in writing, within 90 days, with reasons, under a published procedure. That is a substantial change from an indefinite silence, which has been the common outcome.

Metering, and the thing boards forget

The safe harbour is conditioned on the electricity coming from “the utility serving the location of the charging station.” For a charger on the association's own service that is straightforward.

The configuration that needs thought is the charger wired to an individual unit's meter but sited on a limited common element. There the owner is buying their own power directly and no resale occurs — § 216B.422 is not needed, but the association's consent to the physical installation and to the use of the common element still is, and the cost allocation for any shared infrastructure still has to be worked out in the alteration approval.

What to watch next

No Minnesota EV-charging bill for associations was introduced in the 2025–2026 biennium — not a right-to-charge bill, not an amendment to § 500.215 or § 500.216, and nothing in Chapter 82. The 94th Legislature adjourned 18 May 2026 and the 95th convenes 12 January 2027.

What did pass in the same 2025 article is the Common Interest Community Ombudsperson at Minn. Stat. § 45.0137 — a Department of Commerce office that helps owners and associations understand their rights under ch. 515B, and whose first-year complaint intake is already feeding a statutory report to the Legislature due 1 August 2027.³ Charging disputes are exactly the kind of governing-document question it exists to field.

This describes what the statute permits. It is not advice about any particular installation or billing arrangement.